To be honest, I can't say I'm too hyped about this Core set, though I'm likely to sink my money into a few events and packs - singles seems to be where it's at these days though. I find it interesting that the Intro packs all have Legendary Creatures as their foil.

With cards like Strangleroot Geist in Standard, Rancor is going to be hilarious with Undying. The seeming lack of a Mana Leak reprint is refreshing - they seem to be favoring situational counter spells, which would make sideboarding four of each necessary if you want all the grounds covered.

There are a few reprints that I'm still crossing my fingers for, though I suppose I shouldn't hold my breath.

You and me both, Nicol Bolas is my favorite Magic character and I've put a standard Grixis superfriends deck together to make use of him! I still need to get some play test in though... so I don't have a clue how viable it is.

If they reprint Noble Hierarch (still only rumour), then there will be some mad shenanigans with Geist of Saint Traft and the Exalted mechanic. Throw in Ajani, Caller of the Pride and you get yet another turn-4-kill (more like turn 5, but no-one's counting).

Turn 1: Forest, tap for Noble Hierarch

Turn 2: Plains, tap Hierarch for blue to get out Geist of Saint Traft

Turn 3: Cathedral of War and Ajani, Caller of the Pride, Ajani's +1 on Geist. Swing with Geist (putting the angel on the stack first, then Exalted resolves first). Geist swings for 5 and 4 from the angel.

I see what you did there... In all seriousness, the new Ajani is pretty badass. New Liliana isn't too shabby either. My personal favorite so far is the uncommon Jace's Phantasm. It's in the same vein as Serra Ascendant and so easy to trigger, especially in a Jace-centric deck...

I've been trying to think of a way to make that card not suck, the only things I can really come up with are is a boros deck where I use an O-ring on something akin to a scepter of empires for instant win, or anything else to win the turn it doesn't have summoning sickness.

The fact that they use rarity as a balancing mechanism (rancor as uncommon being a relief) has always struck me as bad game design (great marketing design, bad game design) because it essentially means given players with equal skill, the one with the most money wins.

Cards should be balanced independent of rarity. With rare cards being the type that provide more options for play, not simply more power.

While Kremko's combo potential is obvious I'd say even solo his generation capabilities vastly outstrip Talrand's Seeing as those tokens are goblins themselves after a few turns he'll be churning out dozens of 1/1s. Of course if you can't get a game into turn 9 then you will need some way to untap him and his synergy with the goblin chieftain is ridiculous but on his own if he can be protected he's still pretty terrifying.

Love rancor and hoping to build a very aggresive green aggro deck using strangleroot geist and dongrove elder. Hoping for noble heirarch or some 1 mana accelerent variant in m13 as birds of paradise is already ruled out as being reprinted.

Turn 1 Noble Heirarch (or new 1 mana dork exalted creature)

Turn 2 Strangleroot geist, equip rancor and bash for 5.

Also about rancor being printed as common was fine for the set. It was the same block that brought you yawgmoth's will, yawgmoth's bargain, Tolarian academy, Goblin Lackey (which for awhile was most scariest turn 1 drop ever), Gaea's Cradle..... yeah I think I made my point there. Total of 16 cards banned during that block, rancor seems tamed compared to them.

The thing you mentioned with Tamiyo doesn't seem like it would ever happen. The only time I've every popped an ult was playing against a lands deck where neither of us could do anything. If you've managed to get Tamiyo up to 8, let's be honest, you've already won.

I'm pretty happy with the Rancor reprint, I need some for my Zombie deck I'm making, so that's useful.

As for the rest of the set, well... Not really excited, nothing in there for Legacy players, really. A couple of things might get into Maverick, but I'm not too sure. I did find the Tormod's Crypt reprint a surprise, though.

Exiling the Arsonist doesn't trigger the 1 damage. Having one mountain and a lightning bolt in your hand, however, would win you the game.

How's that going to help? Your hand is exiled too.

The only way to win with a worldfire is to give it flash, and have a damage ability on the stack, then put worldfire on top of it.

Keldon Marauders works perfectly since his 1 damage is a leaves the battlefield and not dies.

Ive heard of a few ways to do it. Keldon Marauders is one. Another good trick is to Oblivion Ring or Fiendhunter something that does damage as it enters the battlefield, or just Oblivion Ring a Mana Barbs and have a stalemate. Bonus Points if you Oblivion Ring an Opponents Forge Devil.

Exiling the Arsonist doesn't trigger the 1 damage. Having one mountain and a lightning bolt in your hand, however, would win you the game.

How's that going to help? Your hand is exiled too.

The only way to win with a worldfire is to give it flash, and have a damage ability on the stack, then put worldfire on top of it.

...or respond to it with a Cloudshift (or Flash in Restoration Angel) on any creature, especially one that hits for damage on ETB. Because you control all three effects, could you not resolve the flicker's second ability after Worldfire resolves? and surely you can adapt other "exile till end of turn" effects, such as Venser, the Sojourner's +1 (assuming you want to play tri-color, or G/R rainbow ramp).

Remember also that your mana pool doesn't empty. You could easily float some extra mana before Worldfire, then use "leaves the battlefield" draw effects to use up that floating mana... or use it to cast Misthollow Griffin after it exiles. A so-crippled opponent can't muster much defense, unless they themselves are also packing Misthollow Griffin or some other "cast from exile" spell/creature.

2xDouble:or respond to it with a Cloudshift (or Flash in Restoration Angel) on any creature, especially one that hits for damage on ETB. Because you control all three effects, could you not resolve the flicker's second ability after Worldfire resolves?

no, they resolve in stack order. What you're thinking about is when multiple triggered abilities trigger at the same time, if they have the same controller then that controller decides in which order they go on the stack.

also flicker-like effects, such as cloudshift and restoration angel, are not two abilities: the creature being exiled and then returning into play is ONE effect(ie: one entity on the stack), nothing else can occur in the game between those two actions.

The only way to win with a worldfire is to give it flash, and have a damage ability on the stack, then put worldfire on top of it.

Keldon Marauders works perfectly since his 1 damage is a leaves the battlefield and not dies.

Ive heard of a few ways to do it. Keldon Marauders is one. Another good trick is to Oblivion Ring or Fiendhunter something that does damage as it enters the battlefield, or just Oblivion Ring a Mana Barbs and have a stalemate. Bonus Points if you Oblivion Ring an Opponents Forge Devil.

It is not a stalemate with manabarbs out. if you draw a mountain then shock for example, you can float the red mana and in response to the manabarbs trigger you can shock them and kill them.